ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior, Ahsan Iqbal Friday said roadmap toformulate National Internal Security Policy is centered on goals defined invision 2025 that envisage sharing peace, stability and development.
Chairing a high level meeting here on formulation of National InternalSecurity Policy (NISP) 2018-2023, hesaid present government has steered the country towards progress byenabling peace and stability.
“We need to take practical steps now in order to consolidate gains made andimprove our capabilities for new and future threats to our peace andsecurity,” he said.
The meeting was attended by officials from Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs),Counter Terrorism Force, Provincial Home Ministries, Higher EducationCommission (HEC) and Ministry of Interior.
The participants approved detailed roadmap for policy formulation processthat includes three rounds of consultation sessions involving keystakeholders and a national conference on internal security. Thisrepresents a move towards evidence-based policy making in order to designpolicy interventions that deal with not only symptoms but also root-causesof security issues.
Ahsan Iqbal said political stability plays vital role for development whichrequires avoiding conflicts in all forms and manifestations. NationalSecurity has become a broad subject. The nature of threats is changing withtechnological revolution, he said.
He said China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has changedGeo-Political equilibrium in region due to which new Geo-Politicalpressures are developing on Pakistan.
“We must develop a comprehensive approach with the ownership of allstakeholders to succeed in implementation,” the Minister said and stressedthat youth in Pakistan constitutes a major part of population and is anasset for the country.
“It is our priority to mobilize youth towards peace and stability byproviding them with enabling environment,” he added.
He said new internal security policy framework is directed towardsestablishing a new paradigm for policy on security and peace and added amore empirical and evidence based approach focused on implementation ofgoals has been adopted.
Ahsan Iqbal said ownership and participation of key government departmentsas well as that of key state institutionsand broader civil society is critical for its success and implementation.He, therefore, requested feedback from all stakeholders and their continuedengagement during policy making process.
The Minister said internal and external affairs are interconnected and haveimplications on domestic and foreign policies.
Moreover, steps have been envisaged in Framework to formulate policy,planning and initial meeting with internal stakeholders, desk research,consultation sessions with relevant stakeholders, national internalsecurity conference, experts interviews, data analysis, reconcilingdiffering views, circulating initial draft for feedback, developing andrefining a final draft, seeking executive approval, setting up mechanismfor implementation and launching/dissemination of policy.
It is to be noted that basic tenets of the policy encapsulates four keyareas to improve peace and security viz: creating a shared vision,establishing rule of law, ensuring political stability and providing socialjustice.
The policy framework has also identified political parties/policy makers,academics/analysts, educationists, journalists/media personnel, religiousscholars, legal experts, civil society organizations and representatives ofmarginalized groups (Youth, Minorities, Women who will be engaged duringprocess of policy formulation) as major stakeholders.
The key inputs required from government departments include an assessmentof key initiatives that have been effective in ensuring security and thosethat are now redundant and assessment of key bottlenecks and blockages thatimpede optimal performance and Suggestions to remove these impediments andmake government departments and LEAs more effective.
It was recognized that similar policy exercises in past lackedimplementation, therefore, detailed implementation strategy – monitoringand evaluation mechanism and funding requirements will be included inpolicy and given particular attention.